Tag Archive: actuality


The Unfolded Savior

i return to my device and the word application asks
want to save? implying my previous work unsaved,
i reply Yes for i trust my earlier self enough
to have made some excellent changes

Chagall 2017

The birds around my home are slower than norm
There is less urgency because of the love and abundance of riches here

Chagall 2017

Sage

Never ever rethink a post once it’s out there
unless it is actually needed

You second guessing
You is hilarious

Chagall 2017

Today, I witnessed and sensed a small bird’s fear
to have a red-shouldered hawk alight
upon an adjacent branch

Chagall 2017

 

Befell

What is there
after you’ve flown?

Where are you
once you touched down?

Careful there on the ledge,
perhaps you’ll not fly again.

How sad to have flown
for the last time.

When up is down
to fall is to fly.

How joyous to have
flown at all.

I’d have thought
clouds to be harder.

I invert when I fly
for I am the sky.

So inwardly
I fall.

Alight on soft pockets
of air.

Dust
on air.

I pray while
I fall.

The whole planet
is falling.

We spin and we turn and
we tilt and we yaw.

The earth rushes to us
once befallen.

© Chagall ∞

Warm Rivulets Between Rills

You remind me of someone you were, how you do that
so perfectly effortless

Evoke the we that we were
cue the salty sea air

Everything about then is beach-washed
designs, that’s how I remember

How could it be otherwise, the
other times we would soar

Just a little
bit more

We remind us
of then

Join me. Inhale – long –
and hold it gently.

© Chagall ∞

Everything is television so be certain to retain an outlet,
a way to get off the air.

© Chagall ∞

 

Preamble

One more morning
I’ll write. Gray,
sure. Air with the
same scent and feel
as that day, you bet.

The need – the ache –
to hold onto anything
that doesn’t slip away.

Perhaps the living is
easy and the writing
tougher.

Sound attests
to the existence of time
as sure as motion does
yet so much timelessness
in the rustle, the whisper
of leaves on canopy branches
high among the zephyrs. I
grow dizzy to imagine myself
there at the top looking down.

Maybe I’ll feel more today and
write less about it, pull in
the shutters, the sash.
Still, here on the inside
I fashion small chips
of graphite into pencil
an essential element
to build strong bones.

With enough sun and love
a stand of kindred spirits
can endure forever.

© Chagall ∞

Communal Living

Every year around this time witnesses the return of
the cicada killer wasps: their sole purpose in life is
to fight, even to die, in the war against cicada.

They land their bodies on my hot pavers, the straight-away
between the porches is a landing field for sassy doughboys,
chewing gum, sun in their eyes, alive another day.

I get out the hose and assist them in training, parrying
with sprinkler and jet and soaker settings, preparing them for
aerial bug-fight, cicadas are fierce opponents
with an innate understanding of prime numbers.

I had a huge party this weekend and I gathered the cicada killer wasps
around and I told them it was the front of the house for the rest of the day
and they listened. That night while packing up the tent and the chairs
they came back and settled into their usual spot. The leader,
oddly one of the youngest, came over and said, “You miss everybody,
i can tell,” hovered a moment and then flew off to the shade of the boxwoods.

© Chagall ∞

To Fall Airily Upward

I leap for the net with big holes
hoping I’ll miss and fall through

to be a mastermind I dress the part,
strip down

the cement is just for weight dear
look who’s back in town!

once I fell
and bounced
only to fall again

and one time
I soared

rooflines ascending
the light on the bridge

a star and
a sky carpet
race

only
to lose
to time

somewhere
it’s rain

rivulets
lap over dappled gray rock
pondering whether
to ripple

this life is
a crazy puddle

I say thank you
in primary colors

each rung
I reach to

awash
eternal

somewhere
it’s storm

© Chagall ∞